Hi all,

Looking for some advice, thanks in advance! My Allroad has a leak in the air suspension, local garage diagnosed as the accumulator tank so will be replacing it. While looking they advised that the rear shocks are both blown so I asked them to quote me on replacing those while they are at it. I almost fell over when the quote came back, the shocks are £650 each from Audi. The garage are looking to see if they can find a suitable alternative at a more reasonable price but I thought I'd ask here in case anyone has recommendations.

If OEM are the way to go then I'll have to swallow it, but Audi seem to gouge a bit on parts so there must be something out there that offers good performance at a better price!

Please let me know if you need more info.

Thanks,

Tony

Welcome Tony and sorry to hear of your issue.

If you have two blown bags and a leaking tank then I assume this vehicle was sitting on its backside prior to investigation -? This is an air suspension on back only on this isn’t it.

Alternative suppliers may well be limited, but you could try Arnotts website for sort of aftermarket replacements. Would be worth putting your reg. no. into Parts in Motion website and see what they come up with.

If it were mine, I’d be getting a second opinion from a trusted local independent before progressing this. 
Please let us know how you get on Tony.

Regards,

Gareth.

Thanks Gareth.

It wasn't sitting entirely on it's backside but was very low. Since it came back from the garage it is completely on it's backside, tyres rubbing on arches. I presume they emptied the tank as part of the investigation and it's unable to get itself back up.

Judging by the looks, yes air suspension on back only - the front looks OK still.

I trust the garage, but they are not an Audi indy so any recommendations in the RG45 area would be appreciated.

One point of note (or not), the tank was diagnosed as why it was erroring, the garage noted that the shocks (not bags, presume there is a difference) were blown. I asked them to quote me for the shocks too, they did say they just need to be done before the MOT.

But they will need to be sorted straight away, since the car cannot be moved. If I’m reading it correctly, the bags/ SA were not blown when it went in there, so….? 
Now it’s going to cost you to get it transported to an independent.

Air suspensions systems, although not too complicated, do need to be worked on by mechanics who have been there done that, not leaving you with an unusable vehicle. 
Hope you can get some sense out of this Tony.

Please keep us posted on how it pans out. 
Regards,

Gareth.

You’re right, they do need to be sorted straight away as I cannot use the car. 
I’ll ask them in the morning why it’s now sat on its !Removed! and make a decision from there.
I’ve been using them for over 10 years and trust them so like to think that if they didn’t know what they’re doing they’d tell me. They’ve been ringing round all day trying to find a cheaper alternative to Audi parts but no luck yet. I don’t expect they’ll want to put too much time into that. 

Thanks Tony,

So have you tried the sources I mentioned? 
Regards,

Gareth. 

Parts in Motion search returned nothing for my reg. I had a quick look at Arnotts, will look closer tomorrow. 

You could also check with ‘Bagpipingandy’ - on EBay. He was the pioneer of compressor repair kits, and much more re. air suspension as I understand. 
Please let us know how you get on.

Thanks Gareth, appreciate the sounding board. I emailed Andy last night actually, he replied very quickly and was really helpful. His opinion was that it's not the accumulator tank - he's never heard of one of those leaking. He suggested I start the car up and listen for the compressor, which I did and couldn't hear anything running or trying to run.

Spoke to the garage just now to get some more information. The tech that worked on it isn't in today but the guy I spoke to sounded like he knows what he's about and said:

• He agrees that it's probably not the tank itself but more likely the compressor has blown. He thinks the part they've quoted would include the tank and compressor in a single unit. He's going to check with the tech when he's back in on Monday
• Since the car is sat right down now with wheels rubbing on arches he thinks what has likely happened is the shocks were blown (they already noted that) and the compressor burnt itself out trying to keep the car up without support from the shocks
• They've seen this quite often on Land Rovers and Range Rovers - sounds like they understand the problem and the system which is what I was getting a bit concerned about. I'd started looking for local Audi specialists, but after talking this morning I have more confidence that they know what they are doing in this respect.
• They can't find non-Audi parts after spending a day ringing round, none that they'd be confident in anyway. They are happy for me to source parts and they'll fit but are concerned because the shocks are electronic and if anything was not quite right there would be no warranty or recourse.

Summary - they'll have a chat Monday and confirm the above, then call me. At this point, as much as it pains me, I'll probably go with their recommendation and take the hit on the cost of the parts from Audi. I've been using them a good few years and trust their judgement, especially now it sounds like they are familiar with air suspension problems.

Parts are on back order and might take a week or two to come in. I'll report back here and let you know the outcome.

Thanks again for the thoughts and advice.

Thanks for the very informative update Tony. I’ve dealt with Andy in the past re. air suspension on a non-Audi, and found him very knowledgeable and helpful. I rebuilt a couple of compressors using his piston rings - to good effect. 
He should be able to help you with a replacement compressor. It seems there are Chinese struts available for some marques, but not sure of contact or availability. Might be worth dipping into the Jaguar Forum and searching through the X350 section with a search on air suspension. 
Don’t know about this, but I’ll throw it in:- Consider changing to conventional suspension. Doable? Practical and economic?? 
Regards,

Gareth. 

 

Hello again Tony,

This might be worth chasing up:-

Bilstein are now remanufacturing struts for the air suspension on Jaguar X350.

Are they doing them for your car as well? 
Worth looking up their Technical contact number and having a chat.

Regards,

Gareth. 

Any update on this for us Tony? 

Morning Gareth. Yes, all fixed!

Following my last update I did more research, emailed more with Andy, and then spoke to the garage again. I shared all the great feedback and advice I've had from various sources with them and we discussed. Upshot was that they stuck with their original diagnosis:

• Leak in the accumulator tank was the main problem - replace tank
• Both rear shocks were blown as they had been leaking oil - ideally replace but could potentially wait a bit longer

They reassured me (as much as you can) that their plan would resolve the issue. I do appreciate all of the advice I've been given but end of the day the garage have actually seen the issue in the flesh, were very confident in their diagnosis, and I've learnt to trust them over the years (trust but verify!) so I went with their recommendation.

As painful as it was to use Audi parts I didn't want to risk no recourse with parts from another supplier so I swallowed the cost.

It took just over a week to get the parts in, and then they had the car for a couple of days. I got it back Friday, did a load of tip runs Saturday (garden waste, heavy-ish loads) and a 200 mile round trip to see family yesterday. No issues at all, drives very nicely, I can raise/lower without issues.

So all in all an expensive issue to resolve but I'm happy with the outcome and still love this car.

Thanks for the advice and for being a sounding board, much appreciated.

Many thanks Tony, 

So did they renew the rear air bags as well? 
Regards,

Gareth. 

No, bags were fine.

Confused Tony! 
You said in an early post that the garage told you they were faulty. 

Did I? My mistake then, apologies. The garage didn’t mention the bags to me, when they originally diagnosed the accumulator tank fault they noted that the shocks were blown as both were leaking oil. 

I replaced both rear air bags on my C7 Allroad. From memory they were +/- £ 150 each on eBay and around 30 minutes per side to fit. It’s a fairly easy fix.